Genetic material identifies the characteristics that are common to living organisims, as well as unique characteristics of every individual plant and animal. The recent acceleration in our knowledge of specific sequences as well as total genomes has also provided tools for rapidly obtaining this information from a small sample of biological material. Numerous products and methods can now take advantage of this pool of knowledge, adapting the genetic material into novel and interesting new products.
Genetic material includes nucleic acid sequences, DNA and RNA, that are arrangements of four different nucleotides, Adenine (A), cytosine (C), thymine (T), and guanine (G) are the building blocks of a DNA sequence. Much of the DNA in an individual genome encodes the amino acids of specific proteins using a triplet codon of nucleotides to code for each specific amino acid, as well as to signal the start and stop of the encoded protein. Non-coding DNA includes regulatory sequences and signals for the processing of the coded messages. The data stored in an individual's genome can be determined by various known sequencing methods, and this data can then be tapped for a variety of purposes, including individual identification, medical diagnosis, and the like.